How we voted … versus what we got

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on February 4, 2016 at 15:44

This has thrown up something I've never really considered before in terms of PR. The SNP only stands in Scotland. How would PR need to be tweaked to ensure that representation in Scotland truly represented the will of the scottish people? Same applies parties that only stand in Wales and Northern Ireland of course. Not talking independence though. A whole different debate.

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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on February 5, 2016 at 9:17

truly represented the will of the scottish people?

I think you've answered this Michael. It's only if the UK broke apart into smaller entities (and maybe even smaller-still) that the will of the occupants of those entities could be truly represented. As you say, it's a whole different debate.

In the pie charts above, the assumption is a single representative body for a United Kingdom.

It's a popular topic. When yesterday I publicised these charts from the Electoral Reform Society by a tweet, it was re-tweeted more than 70 times and viewed about 6,000 times. One of the re-tweets said:

I think it captures a lot of information to compare and contrast at a glance.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on February 5, 2016 at 9:46

I suppose it comes down to which form of PR we could go with. There are lots out there but I'm not clued up enough about them to know which would be fair in terms of both proportionality and ensuring that you don't have bits of the country with little or no voice. At the moment we have the worst of both worlds really.

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Permalink Reply by Neil on February 5, 2016 at 16:30

What we got is a good deal and a relief! 

Imagine Corbyn, or Tim Farron, with more power! 

The Conservatives can now be more decisive and move faster to improve on their impressive record on the economy, job creation and helping to fund aid in the Third World. Long may they be in power! 

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